Question

Why would I want to use java portlets above tomcat and gwt?
Would portlets make it less- or un- necessary for me to use jsp and jsf?
Has Jboss been part of the portlet evolution culture? Does Jboss satisfy the portlet jsrs?

What portlet implementation/brand would run on gae java and gae python?
Are portlet specs due to peer pressure from php cms culture?

What are the equivalent of portlet and portlet jsr in .net?

Answer 1

If you happen to have a framework that you need to use, and it supports portlets, you may find then that portlets are going to be useful, since the application is built with the idea, but, as others have mentioned, if you are starting on a project, there are many other technologies that will do what you want with less effort, in a more stable environment.

For example, when I worked at the University of South Florida, the learning management system was (and is) Blackboard, and they now support portlets: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Blackboard+Portlet. So, if the application provides an API, and expects people to use portlets, then it may make sense to look at them.

UPDATE:

After looking at the question there were a couple of things I missed.

Portlets were an attempt, it seems, to try to do as Google did on their homepage, where you could have multiple unrelated blocks of information on the webpage, so you could track your stack portfolio and your favorite hockey team, for example. I don’t think it was influenced by PHP CMS as it was just an idea that was ready to come about, and if you need the server code to help pull the information, and to tie it into an application, this was one approach.

The closest thing in ASP.NET that I can think of to portlets are controls. I could have a stock portfolio control and when I include it on my page, you can set the options and it will show you your stocks and hockey team scores.

Not everyone uses JSF, for example, so controls would need to be written by hand as JSPs and servlets, with javascript.